ada

We're not an apolitical instance. We're not a political instance, but that doesn't mean we're apolitcal. I quite explicitly described both my own political position, and a clear bias against right wing spaces in terms of communities that are allowed.

are finally gonna tell us whether fascist trans folks are welcome or not? no skin off my tits at this point, i just think people deserve to know.

My post outlined my own strong left political beliefs, highlighted the instance bias against conservative political communities, and explicitly stated that bigoted and exclusionary opinions are not welcome.

If you think fascism somehow has a home here after all of that, then either you didn't read my post, you misunderstand the nature of facism or you're not acting in good faith.

when those pronouns have absolutely nothing to do with gender and are more about making a mockery of trans people and playing out a power fantasy over other people.

If and when you can demonstrate evidence that that is what was happening, I will act on it, but until then, as I stated, I'm not willing to gatekeep people's identities on my personal assessment of their validity. That's not going to change.

I can and will moderate on behaviour however, but in the case of the person I believe you are referring to, after a moderation chat I've seen no evidence of continuing behaviour at odds with our instance guidelines.

i can't see this situation as any different when the pronouns themselves genuinely make some people feel unsafe.

If someone's pronouns make you feel unsafe, that's more of an issue you need to work on than anything else IMO. I know I've struggled with "it" as a pronoun, because it's historically a slur that has been targeted against our community. Seeing people use it made me deeply uncomfortable, and when I first heard it, I assumed, as you're assuming, that the people using it were doing it in bad faith. I've since come to understand that my assumptions were incorrect, and that my discomfort is my issue to work through, not something I get to force on to others.

And until such time as we find a way of reading people's minds to determine their intentions, all we can do is respect what they tell us about who they are, and respond to their behaviour.

If you disagree with that approach, then you're likely to find your experience here frustrating.

i would also add that you cannot have an instance without politics

Of course not. As I said in the post that you're replying to, political communities are welcome here. This is especially true, because of the impact that politics has on our lives as queer folk.

It looked like the owner of the affected community was driven out by something that almost resembled a witch hunt, with accusations that appeared to be unfounded or even maliciously pushed by people opposing the views or moderation style of the community.

That's not something I can speak to from an admin perspective. I wasn't active in the community, and unless it was reported or otherwise brought to my attention, I saw very little of it, so I don't really have a great sense of Links specific reasons for departing.

What I do know, is that Grail left on good terms with me, and expressed thanks for the blahaj community.

There was a particular user who stood out to me because they tried to respond to as many posts as possible, seemingly fueling the drama, or at least actively pushing their opinion on everyone

There were two users at the center of much of the recent drama. One has recently been banned and their communities removed, after it became clear that their goals were divisive and targeted.

I've spoken to the other user privately, and addressed some of the issues that arose, and since then, I've seen no indication that the problems have re-surfaced.

That's as much detail as I'm willing to go in to on moderation of individuals.

The division is how midtraveler is constantly starting arguments with people who don't share their views. If hexbear gets defederated for this behavior

Hexbear was defederated because they allow dunking and targetting of folk they don't agree with. They were defederated because of their dogpiling.

MindTraveller's community was allowed to exist on the explicit provision that it didn't do that.

And then it was removed when it became clear it was doing nothing but damaging the community.

The post you linked to by MindTraveller is an active misrepresentation of events.

Traveller and I are not "in agreement" about much of anything. Their politics are very far removed from mine

This is the text of the message I sent advising that I was shutting the group down.

After consideration, I’ve decided that non voters does not really fit the stated goals of blahaj zone. Your motives for creating it seem based on a personal vendetta, and whilst your views are genuine, nothing constructive comes from the community. All it does is create division, because its sole purpose is to target others, without really focusing on any progressive ideas or discussion of its own.

At the moment, it’s causing more harm than good to the overall community.

I’ll leave the community open, so that if you choose to set the community up on another instance, you will have the opportunity to direct them to the new location.

Given the post which you linked, (which I had not seen until now) I will be removing Traveller and the new community, because once more, the goal appears to be to create division

My goal of blahaj zone is not political. The goal is to allow trans people to have a space where they can exist on their own terms, without having to pretend to be someone they're not. My own political views are closer to Links/LibertyHub than nonvoters or its ilk. Yet as long as there is no bigotry or gatekeeping, then trans people with politics at odds with my own are welcome. It's why we have an "armed queers" community, despite my own strong distaste for gun culture.

Communities/posters that exist primary to create division, without adding anything positive back, have no place here.

There's some sort of ongoing issues with our hosting provider. We're trying to get to the bottom of it

Rather than just banning trans folk who don't align with their politics, or targeting their political ideas, Hexbear actively enables dogpiling and harassing of individual trans folk

That's not the behaviour of "the most trans positive instance", especially given that Hexbears political ideology is fringe at best, making the majority of trans people valid targets for its harassment.

Don't get me wrong. Hexbear is incredibly supportive of its trans folk. It's why I tried to make federation with them work for so long. But it's only supportive of its own trans folk. If you don't align with their political stance, you get harassment, not support.

'Dunking' on them is a pittance in comparison

This statement is at odds with the claim that they're the most trans inclusive instance around.

Hexbear is incredibly protective of trans folk that share its views, but it green lights active harassment of trans folk not in that group.

An instance that is ok with harassment of some trans folk isn't as protective as you're claiming.

Transphobe has been banned

They stop stinging after a while. I mean, you might never feel great about them, but for me at least, the urge to burn them in a fire went away after a few years. Now, I don't bring them up for no reason, but if it's relevant, I'm happy to bring out an old photo of me pre transition

Which is to say, keep them. You can't unthrow them away later. But you can simply never look at them again, even if you keep them

People here will be salty about me saying it but I think they’re the most trans positive instance. I say this as someone that looks at everything trans related from lemmy.ml on purpose so I can check in on everyone

Hexbear is very inclusive to trans people that align with its ideology, but it actively allows harassment and "dunking" of anyone, including trans people, who don't align with its ideology. In my opinion, it's hard to be the most inclusive trans instance when you are only inclusive of some trans people, and are willing to harass the rest.